A CLERICAL IMPOSTOR

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 1959, 2 October 1888, Page 3

A CLERICAL IMPOSTOR

i The c&reer of imposture laid bare m | the osse of the Rev George Ellis, late tectoe of Wethetiagaott, JSuafex, 13 as extraordinary as any of its kicid . Mr fills senna to have been the illegitimate ron of a wouiaa who married a rabbluskln seller m Lincolnshire, and fi-at worked aa an ordinary laborer, But he hid wits, and umahcw got employment In a Romaa Oitholic school at Salford Finding out that the Chine 1 of England adnvta oonvortod priests from the Ri man o'jdimunfon without rjordi:ia ion, he forged pipers of ord'naHon m Litin wi'h the signatures of tbe Rom m Catholic B shop and Canon of Silford. On the strength of those he wib admitted into *he Ohnroh by tb.3 Blahop of Truro, now the Pfitn^te arsd pa?aeJ into tne diocesa of Norwich. Hure he married. »nd was p-esented 10 a lining worth £800 a year by his father-in-law. Unft rtuna.ely, prosperity appears t) have at length turned his bead. He quarrelled and behaved m an unaccountable way towards tho village, till suspicion was aroused, and reference made to the Roman Catholic minorities at Salford brought the troth to light. Soveo years' penal servitude ia a heavy penalty for hie orlme, which might have caused infinite mleohief were not the marriages performed by him valid under a recent law. 1